The New York Yankees and Marcus Stroman make for very strange bedfellows these days. After a 2024 season in which he struggled on the mound and was largely frozen out of the team's postseason pitching hierarchy, it seemed like Stroman was on the outs — an impression the team confirmed when it handed a massive bag to former Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried in December. With $18.5 million coming in 2025 and no spot left for him in the rotation, a trade felt more likely than Stroman reporting to camp in pinstripes.
And yet, the latter is exactly what's happened. New York couldn't find any takers on the trade market, and, not wanting to cut bait with potentially viable pitching just for the sake of doing so, Brian Cashman decided to keep Stroman around. What followed was a surreal few days, where Stroman would seem to be openly in denial of his place on the roster while Cashman and manager Aaron Boone pretended nothing was wrong.
And now things might be about to get even more awkward, with the news that Yankees righty Luis Gil will be shut down for at least the next six weeks with a high-grade lat strain. With Gil out of the picture for the foreseeable future, New York's needs a starter, and sure enough Stroman is the most qualified man for the job at this point. It sure looks like the righty has gotten the last laugh, and did so by more or less holding his team hostage — a situation that should be pretty familiar to a certain former fan base of his.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Yankees' Marcus Stroman drama should be all too familiar for Blue Jays fans
Of course, Stroman is no stranger to stirring up a little bit of drama with his own front office. Drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round back in 2012, Stroman established himself as a rock-solid starter at the big-league level, pitching to a 3.91 ERA (108 ERA+) over his first five seasons in Canada. But despite that production, Stroman remained without a contract extension as he entered his final year of team control in the spring of 2019. And he had no problems letting the media, and GM Ross Atkins, know how he felt about it.
"I've been waiting to sign a long-term deal, I've been offered nothing," Stroman said at the time. "I don't think I should have to go and verbally say that. They see it. Everybody sees my work ethic.
He also went on to criticize Atkins' roster-building, including his choice to jettison veterans like Jose Bautista and his failure to keep up with the likes of the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Eventually, Stroman talked himself right out of town, getting shipped to the New York Mets at the 2019 trade deadline in exchange for Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson. The Yankees, however, don't have that luxury; they need Stroman to eat innings this season, at least for the first couple of months, and they're going to have to eat a lot of crow in order to make sure their mercurial righty stays happy. Toronto has seen what happens when he doesn't.